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Toulouse
Toulouse is the capital city of the Midi-Pyrenees region of France and is located in the south west of the country on the river Garonne. Getting ThereCategory:France From Europe Dublin, Ireland Direct flights are offered by Aer Lingus between Dublin and Toulouse from the 29th March to the 24th October, see Aer Lingus' timetables for more details. For travelling outside of these dates, there are a number of options. * Stopover flights are available, mainly through Heathrow, with a number of different airlines and can be booked through Skyscanner. * Alternatively, you can fly direct from Dublin to a nearby city and make your way to Toulouse by public transport. Direct flights to Carcassonne from Dublin are operated all year around by Ryanair, and a train journey between there and Toulouse lasts just over an hour and is very cheap, see SNCF's website. Flights to Barcelona airport are generally cheaper although the train journey is more expensive. A very cheap bus service is operated between there and Toulouse by Megabus, however the journey lasts around 5 hours by bus. The airport is located 15 minutes outside the city, a shuttle bus runs regularly from there to the train station and bus station, making several stops in the city centre. The train station and bus station are a short walk from the city centre. Getting Around Bus/Metro The bus service is very extensive, with bus stops located all over the city. A single ticket costs €1.60 and can be bought on the bus (exact change is not required though no large notes will be accepted). Two metro lines run through the city, providing a quick way of getting from one select spot to another. A single ticket costs €1.90 and can be purchased at each station. Tisseo, the company that provides these two services, provides a very cheap card (Pastel card) for people aged 12-25: a top up of €10 allows the owner unlimited use of both services for 30 days. The card must initially be purchased from the Tisseo office at Jean Jaures metro station (€8 charge and passport photo required) but can subsequently be topped up at any metro station. See Tisseo website for more details. Cycling Cycling is a very efficient way of getting around Toulouse: the roads are well equipped with bike lanes and a lot of the city centre is pedestrianised or one way streets (except for bikes). The city provides a great bike service, Velo Toulouse, with parking stations located throughout the city. Using your Pastel card (mentioned above in Bus/Metro) the service charges a flat rate of €20 for the year. If journeys are kept below 30 mins no additional charges will be incurred, over that however you will be charged 50c and then €1 per hour. See website for more details. Accomodation University Accomodation Arsenal Arsenal is located on the campus of Universite Toulouse 1 Capitole, just a few minutes walk from the city centre. The standard room is 9m squared which includes a private fridge and bathroom. Kitchen facilities are shared with the floor. See here for more details. Chapou Located at the end of the Canal de Brienne, Chapou is a 20-30 minute walk from the city centre of Toulouse and is accessible by bus but not metro. Standard room size is 9m squared: some buildings have rooms with smaller private kitchens while others have a communal kitchen on each floor. See here for more details. Rental Assistance Residents can receive rental assistance from the Caisses d'Allocations Familiales (CAF). The amount is calculated according to the student's accommodation and income and can cover a significant proportion of one's monthly rent. . The application process can be long and trying, the applicant will require photocopies of their passport and birth cert as well as details of their French bank account (should be opened on arrival) and proof of residence, which can be provided by your accommodation provider. The nearest office to Toulouse city centre is located at 24 Rue Pierre Paul Riquet, 31046 Toulouse (a short walk from the Francois Verdier metro stop). See the CAF website for more details. Furnishing Student accommodation provides nothing in the way of kitchenware (cutlery, plates, pots, etc), sheets, pillows, nor any small appliances such as irons or kettles. Though these items could be purchased from most supermarkets about the city, the Auchan store (located at the Balmont-Gramont metro stop) is the cheapest and most reliable one-stop shop. For more decorative (and hence expensive) items one might try Midica, a department store located at the Esquirol metro stop. It is also worth noting that the student accommodation only provides wired internet connections and you will need to provide your own Ethernet cable. University UT1 Capitole General Set-up Shortly after arrival you will be given an appointment for when to apply for your student card, this is a long process and expect delays. It is only once you have acquired your student card, which tells you your student number and INE password, that you will be able to access the Wifi networks at university and log in to your home network at student accommodation. It will also be needed to borrow books from the university library and as general identification on student accommodation. Classes and Exams An average 4 credit module will comprise 2 classes a week, each lasting 90 minutes. For most classes, a comprehensive set of notes that follows the bulk of the material are available from previous years, try asking someone in the class or joining the group Facebook page. Exams in these classes will take place at the end of the respective semester and, for Erasmus students, will generally comprise a 10-15 minute oral examination. This will usually take the form of drawing a topic from the coursework at random, having 10 minutes to prepare a presentation on it and then reciting it in front of the examiner. The examiner may or may not ask you random questions from other areas of the course after your presentation. Your result will be a mark out of 20, with 10 being the necessary pass rate. Tutorials Some classes include a set of tutorials or TDs that follow the class material, count for 2 credits and which you may or may not have to do. These involve 1 class a week that lasts 90 minutes. The method of examination for these TDs will vary according to the seminarist but oral participation in class and the weekly assignment will generally count toward your result. The assignment can be any of the following: * Dissertation - an essay on a particular topic covered in class. It is important to follow the French two-part plan here, ask the Erasmus coordinator about methodology classes if you need to familiarise yourself with this. Thankfully most seminarists only ask for a detailed plan, that is a bullet point list of the bulk of your essay, putting more emphasis on structure. * Commentaire - this is a commentary on a document or piece of law and takes the same form of an essay, that is a two part plan and usually just a detailed plan. * Fiche d'Arret - this is a summation of a legal judgment under specific headings, again methodology classes will prove useful for structure. * Commentaire d'Arret - a more critical and personal commentary on the judgment, structure is relevant so methodology classes will once again prove useful. Your end of year result will likely also depend on either an end of year oral exam, which will be similar to that of the main class, or a partiel blanc. This is a 3 hour test in which you will be given a topic on which to write a dissertation or commentaire and is basically a mock of the exam which most students will have in the main class, but which Erasmus students may have to do regardless. Your result in the partiel will usually count for 25% of your end of year result in the TD. Sports Capitole offers many different sports clubs for students to sign up to. Subscription is complex and will often require a doctor's note, but up to 2 credits per club will be awarded to the student for consistent participation in the weekly practices and games. Languages Language classes are offered to students of UT1, whether you are looking to improve your French or learn another language. The classes can count for credits, though this may depend on your home university, and cost €190 per semester. Ask at the languages office for more details. Cheaper language classes are available outside of college by an independent organisation, though these generally don't correspond to the semester and may be located at more remote spots across the city. See here for more details. The Arsenal library also has a Language Resource Centre on the first floor, which is designed as a space for students to develop their language skills. This centre also organises conversation workshops and facilitates setting up a ''tandem ''programme whereby two people, each wanting to learn the language of the other, will be paired up so that they can organise themselves a time and place to speak together and learn from each other. Shopping Groceries There are several supermarkets in Toulouse: * Auchan - Located at the Balmont-Gramont metro stop, this is the largest shopping centre in the city. Advantages include the stock available and price with the main disadvantage being its location relatively far from the city centre. * Carrefour - Boasting the best location at the Compans Caffarelli metro stop (close to the city centre), most of the goods in Carrefour are medium priced and the store itself is relatively large. * Lidl - A bit further from the city centre (Rue du Bayard, just up from the Jeanne d'Arc metro stop), Lidl is the cheapest supermarket in the city, though its stock is limited and it doesn't provide common items like fresh milk and fresh baguettes / croissants. * Simply - This supermarket is only really of interest to people staying at the Chapou student accommodation as it is located a 10 minute walk from the cité univeristaire, on the opposite side of the Canal de Midi. Simply is quite large and provides medium priced goods. * Smaller convenience stores such as Casino, Intermarche and Carrefour City are located around the city, though needless to say provide less goods at a higher price. Other In general, many of the clothes, electronics and other miscellaneous shops are located in the city centre around the Place du Capitole area, and particularly on Rue d'Alsace-Lorraine. Such shops can also be found at the shopping centre at the Balmont-Gramont metro stop. Eating Out If eating out, there are several options available: * Fast food - There are several fast food restaurants around Toulouse city centre, with the two biggest brand names being McDonalds and Subway. Some will also deliver to your home, for example Speed Burger (website here) and Facefood Pizza (website here). * Restaurant Universitaire Arsenal - Ideal for students stuck in college for the day, the restaurant located on UT1 campus provides a filling though simple 3 course meal for €3.20. Open from 11am - 2pm and 6.30pm - 8.30pm. There are also several cafeterias around campus for a quicker bite and a cup of coffee. * Other - There are plenty of other restaurants located around the city for a nicer, though needless to say more expensive, meal out. Many offer local cuisine such as cassoulet while others are themed (for Italian you might try 'Pizza Pino' and for American Burgers 'Les Americans', both located close to the Jean Jaures metro stop. Nightlife Bars Being a big student city the bar scene is very popular in Toulouse, more so than nightclubs in fact: * The Saint Pierre area is located a short distance from UT1 and is a hotspot for students with many relatively cheap pubs and a scenic view of the River Garonne. * If you're looking for a bite to eat with your drink, you might try English pub 'The Classroom' (Rue Pargaminières, a short walk from the city centre) or Irish pub 'De Danu' (Rue du Pont Guilhemery, a short walk from the Francois Verdier metro stop). * If you enjoy live music, Mulligans is an Irish pub that offers such several nights a week and is located right beside the Saint Michel Marcel Langer metro stop. * For a more lively bar scene, Cafe Populaire (Rue de la Colombette, a short walk from the Jean Jaures metro stop) is a great spot for a drink and a dance, and offers 13 small drinks for €13 on Mondays. Activities Cinema The two big cinemas in Toulouse, UGC and Gaumont-Wilson, are located just down from the Jean Jaures metro stop. Both are ideal if you're interested in trying some authentic French cinema, though Gaumont-Wilson offers more popular films in their original English version (if booking online, be sure to book Version Originaire Sous-Titre or VOST and not Version Francaise or VF).